Career

Worked in publishing in New York City after 1996, and at
Allure
magazine; started her eponymous millinery firm, 1997; launched footwear
line, 2004.

Awards:
Council of Fashion Designers of America, Perry Ellis award for
Accessories Design for foot-wear, 2004.

Sidelights

New York City hatmaker Eugenia Kim has a devoted clientele of
discriminating fashionistas and celebrity trendsetters for her fanciful
headgear. Constructed out of unusual materials and trimmed with materials
that include beading, vintage satin, and lizard, Kim's works are
made entirely by hand, as traditional millinery was once done. "My
hats are graceful and elegant in shape, " she told Nicole Phelps in
WWD
, "but quirky and over-the-top when it comes to color."

Kim grew up in Pennsylvania in a Korean-American family. Her parents were
émigrés from Korea, and she was their first child. She
excelled in science and

math, and her parents hoped she would follow in her father's
footsteps and become a doctor. She entered Dartmouth College in the early
1990s, where she earned a degree in psychology. After graduating in 1996,
she settled in New York City to think about what she wanted to do next.
She had not yet ruled out medical school, but took a job in the publishing
industry while enrolling part-time at the Parsons School of Design. A
millinery class decided her future career direction, though she admitted
she had always loved hats. "I have no cheekbones, and I never
learned to use eyeliner, " she explained to
New York Times
fashion writer Ruth La Ferla, "A hat accents things that I
don't have."

Kim learned more about the fashion world during a year-long stint at
Allure
magazine. The victim of a self-inflicted bad haircut, Kim decided to wear
a cloche hat she had made for her Parsons class when she went out shopping
in Soho—New York's trendy boutique area—to cover the
mistake. She earned several compliments for the feather-embellished hat,
including one from actress Parker Posey (a New York denizen known for her
funky downtown style) and others from store owners. One of them asked to
see the rest of her line, and so Kim went home and made a few other cloche
hats in different colors, and wound up with a deal to sell them at Bond
07, a trendy store in Soho.

Kim also landed an order from leading fashion retailer Barneys New York,
and with that decided to start her own business. "The timing was
just right, " she told Pilar Guzman in an interview with
Marie Claire
, "because nobody my age was really doing hats." Within a
year, she had found a multi-floor space in the East Village that did
triple-duty as her apartment, workshop, and retail store. Her parents,
however, were not happy about her plans at first, as she told Guzman.
"For the first six months, my parents absolutely didn't
support me, " she recalled in the
Marie Claire
interview.

But Kim's hats began to catch on with fashionindustry insiders, and
were soon featured in the pages of
Elle, Lucky
, and
W
magazines. A growing list of wearers included Madonna, Gwen Stefani,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Lauryn Hill, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst, and Christina
Aguilera. Jennifer Lopez wore one of Kim's hats when she appeared
onstage at the 2001 American Music Awards, and rapper Eve sported another
style on the cover of her 2001 album
Scorpion.
Kim, however, was oblivious to all but the most well-known faces.
"I never even recognize celebrities, " she told
People
, "until I see their name on their credit card."

In 2004, Kim's company launched a footwear line that included
rabbit-fur trimmed boots and other whimsical creations. The collection won
her the Council of Fashion Designers of America Perry Ellis award for
accessories design that year, a prestigious honor for an upstart company.
Past winners include Kate Spade and Miranda Morrison and Kari Sigerson of
Sigerson Morrison. Kim's line of hats and shoes are sold at such
top retailers as Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom, among the 120 stores
around the world that carry them.

As a first-generation Korean American, Kim says that her heritage still
plays a role in her work life. "I have mostly Japanese and Chinese
staff members, " she told Guzman in the
Marie Claire
interview, "because we all have the same work ethic and design
aesthetic." She also said that certain personality traits have
helped her in her career, once she found a way to channel her
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD)
effectively. "OCD feeds the micromanaging part of it, which you
need when your business is small, " she admitted in the
Marie Claire
article. "And my ADD lets me jump from one thing to the next when
I can't focus on it anymore. I've learned to give in to it
by playing to my strengths in the moment and switching when I get the
urge."

Sources

Periodicals

Entertainment Weekly
, April 13, 2001, p. 18.

Marie Claire
, September 2002, p. 167.

New York Times
, September 30, 2001, p. ST8.

People
, June 21, 2004, p. 132.

WWD
, April 27, 1998, p. 10S.

Online

User Contributions:

I have just finished reading a book titled "The Calligrapher's Daughter written by Eugenia Kim, no mention of this in your web site. The book was thoroughly enjoyable and although a work of fiction, it did enlighten me as to the history of Korea.

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